Collection of Seminole dolls in the process of being made by Mary Billie - Big Cypress Reservation, Florida

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Mary B. Billie has been a dollmaker since she was 17. She learned the skill by watching her mother, who had learned it from Mary's grandmother.

Accompanying note: "Seminoles used to make dolls mainly as toys for their own children, but now Mary, like other Seminole dollmakers, depends upon the craft to earn her living. 'They were for the kids to play with at first. That's what they were making it for, for the kids to play with.'"

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